{"id":4219,"date":"2015-08-01T17:16:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T15:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/?p=4219"},"modified":"2020-05-28T18:36:52","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T16:36:52","slug":"is-project-manager-a-job-or-a-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/is-project-manager-a-job-or-a-profession\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Project Manager a Job, or a Profession?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"4219\" class=\"elementor elementor-4219\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1775baf0 elementor-section-content-top elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1775baf0\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\" data-e-bg-lazyload=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-background-overlay\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-3a16963c\" data-id=\"3a16963c\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-6399fb14 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"6399fb14\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-2ad64670\" data-id=\"2ad64670\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-67f4d021 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"67f4d021\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"191\" src=\"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/Aaron_Shenhar_opt.jpg.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-4225\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-374c43b4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"374c43b4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h4 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">By Aaron Shenhar<\/h4>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4167afe6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"4167afe6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h5 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">August 2015<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5e349d9d elementor-widget-divider--view-line elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"5e349d9d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-divider{--divider-border-style:none;--divider-border-width:1px;--divider-color:#0c0d0e;--divider-icon-size:20px;--divider-element-spacing:10px;--divider-pattern-height:24px;--divider-pattern-size:20px;--divider-pattern-url:none;--divider-pattern-repeat:repeat-x}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider{display:flex}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider__text{font-size:15px;line-height:1;max-width:95%}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider__element{margin:0 var(--divider-element-spacing);flex-shrink:0}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-icon{font-size:var(--divider-icon-size)}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider-separator{display:flex;margin:0;direction:ltr}.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon .elementor-divider-separator,.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_text .elementor-divider-separator{align-items:center}.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon .elementor-divider-separator:after,.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon .elementor-divider-separator:before,.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_text .elementor-divider-separator:after,.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_text .elementor-divider-separator:before{display:block;content:\"\";border-block-end:0;flex-grow:1;border-block-start:var(--divider-border-width) var(--divider-border-style) 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.elementor-divider-separator:before{content:none}.elementor-widget-divider--element-align-start .elementor-divider__element{margin-inline-start:0}.elementor-widget-divider--element-align-end .elementor-divider .elementor-divider-separator>.elementor-divider__svg:last-of-type{flex-grow:0;flex-shrink:100}.elementor-widget-divider--element-align-end .elementor-divider-separator:after{content:none}.elementor-widget-divider--element-align-end .elementor-divider__element{margin-inline-end:0}.elementor-widget-divider:not(.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_text):not(.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon) .elementor-divider-separator{border-block-start:var(--divider-border-width) var(--divider-border-style) var(--divider-color)}.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern{--divider-border-style:none}.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern.elementor-widget-divider--view-line .elementor-divider-separator,.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern:not(.elementor-widget-divider--view-line) .elementor-divider-separator:after,.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern:not(.elementor-widget-divider--view-line) .elementor-divider-separator:before,.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern:not([class*=elementor-widget-divider--view]) .elementor-divider-separator{width:100%;min-height:var(--divider-pattern-height);-webkit-mask-size:var(--divider-pattern-size) 100%;mask-size:var(--divider-pattern-size) 100%;-webkit-mask-repeat:var(--divider-pattern-repeat);mask-repeat:var(--divider-pattern-repeat);background-color:var(--divider-color);-webkit-mask-image:var(--divider-pattern-url);mask-image:var(--divider-pattern-url)}.elementor-widget-divider--no-spacing{--divider-pattern-size:auto}.elementor-widget-divider--bg-round{--divider-pattern-repeat:round}.rtl .elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider__text{direction:rtl}.e-con-inner>.elementor-widget-divider,.e-con>.elementor-widget-divider{width:var(--container-widget-width,100%);--flex-grow:var(--container-widget-flex-grow)}<\/style>\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-66 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-185a6035\" data-id=\"185a6035\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-405cbf00 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"405cbf00\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Is Project Manager a Job, or a Profession?<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-293ff985 elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon elementor-view-default elementor-widget-divider--element-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"293ff985\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon elementor-divider__element\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fas fa-book-open\"><\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-208437fc elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"208437fc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>Is project manager a job, or a profession? If it\u2019s a job, what do you have to do? If it\u2019s a profession, what do you have to know?<\/p><p>If you are like most people, you\u2019ve got the job first. Most likely, you became a project manager because you were good at your previous job. Does that mean you will be good as manager? Probably not! But you\u2019ve got the job anyway. Now what? In other professions such as law, medicine, or accounting, you won\u2019t get a job unless you studied the knowledge first. In project management, however, it\u2019s in reverse. What\u2019s event worse, in many cases your new job wasn\u2019t even defined well, and your career path wasn\u2019t planned for you. Yet, whether you like it or not, this transition represents the start of a life-long self-learning process.<br \/>While these questions seem fundamental and maybe obvious, I would like to dispute the common belief, and offer a longer-term perspective about a project manager\u2019s role and his or her life-learning process. Traditionally, a project manager is supposed to deliver the project\u2019s product (the output) on time, budget, and scope \u2013 what is commonly known as the \u201ctriple constraint.\u201d And he or she needs to learn a collection of knowledge areas and skills such as scope management, risk management, time management, etc., as well as initiation, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, etc.<br \/>I contend that this is a myth, and only part of the picture. In fact, in today\u2019s dynamic and demanding project environment, effective project managers are often required to do a lot more. Furthermore, in spite of the well-known and established tools, most projects today aren\u2019t even meeting their time and budget goals, while there is something more important than meeting short term delivery goals. I suggest that the major goal of any project is to create real and new value and\/or achieve the project\u2019s expected business results and deal with the project\u2019s outcome. Based on this belief we may be standing at the gates of a new era in the profession that would simply demand aligning project execution with business and turning managers into business leaders. This era will transform the profession in the next few years.<br \/>To put things in perspective, even when projects are meeting their time and budget goals, quite often this does not translate to successful business results. In contrast, there are quite a few projects that did not meet their planned schedules, but turned out to be huge commercial successes. If you think about it for a moment, you may agree that every project is initiated with some business idea in mind. It may be the introduction of a new product, the improvement of a product, the creation of a new product line, the solution of a pressing problem, or the improvement of a company\u2019s process. Simplistically, almost all projects are initiated either to make money, save money, or just create new value. Collectively, we could define each one of these goals as the \u201cbusiness objective\u201d of the project.<br \/>At this time, however, many project teams are still not really concerned about meeting business objectives during the execution period. Normally, they receive the business goals and requirements as determined prior to the project, and they keep focusing on the traditional (and of course important) elements of planning, executing, monitoring and delivering.<br \/>But this is about to change. While initial business objectives will still be determined prior to the project, today\u2019s fast pace of change in technology, competition, and markets, suggest that unless project teams look and understand the project\u2019s business objectives, and more important, continue to improve the value imbedded in the final product or even modify it, completed projects may end up irrelevant when they reach the market. This is what we call \u201cstrategic execution,\u201d and it will become more and more a significant part in any project manager\u2019s job.<br \/>Thus let me redefine the project manager\u2019s job and responsibility: Project managers should be made responsible for achieving the project\u2019s business objectives, in addition to timely delivery. Project managers should start running their projects with a business-focused mindset, and adopt the tools to do that. Furthermore, based on this perspective, I suggest to redefine a project as follows: \u201cA project is a temporary organization and leadership process set up to achieve business results and maximize value of the outcome.\u201d By adopting this view, project managers will not only be more attuned to the outcomes to their projects, but their teams will also be more engaged, while learning to contribute to the creation of final value.<br \/>Many who read this may question: Since when do we require a project manager to be responsible for the business results, and if we do, what is the role of the sponsor, the owner, or the executive? Isn\u2019t it contrasting the traditional hierarchy and separation of roles between sponsors, and project managers? Well, not really. The right way is to see it is to still consider the sponsor accountable. If the project makes or loses money, the project manager does not enjoy the gains or suffer the losses. The company does. However, he\/she is still responsible to achieve the results, which follow the execution period. An analogy may be a ship\u2019s captain. A captain is always responsible to bring the ship safely to its destination. But if the ship is late, he\/she is not paying the price.<br \/>Finally, what about the project management profession? By adopting this approach the profession may grow bigger. It is time to extend our knowledge and skills into new domains, while still preserving all the traditional knowledge and tools such as work breakdown structure, scheduling diagrams, and Gantt charts, among many others. So what are the new domain skills that may be needed in the extended profession? To answer this question, we may turn to research. From studies on the most successful and \u201cgreat projects,\u201d we learned that these projects engage three \u201cnew\u201d elements that are currently not listed among the traditional skills. The first one relates to business side. Every great project manager has typically mastered the capabilities of strategy, business vale and the creation of competitive advantage. In other words, these projects have learned to strategize their activities. The second element suggests that managers of great projects know how to adapt their project to its specific environment, technology and innovation. That is, they understand that \u201cone size does not fit all,\u201d and they need to employ the concept of adaptation to run their projects more effectively. And the third element relates to leadership. Project managers need to become better leaders, who know how to inspire, motivate and set the right vision and spirit among their team members. Accepting this responsibility will build highly energized teams, and proud, and motivated people. Obviously these new domains will require adopting some new and more advanced tools, which will be reviewed in later articles.<br \/>To sum it up, I predict that the new era will bring with it better project results, more profitability, better customer satisfaction, and more happy teams.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aaron Shenhar August 2015 Is project manager a job, or a profession? If it\u2019s a job, what do you have to do? If it\u2019s a profession, what do you have to know? If you are like most people, you\u2019ve got the job first. Most likely, you became a project manager because you were good [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}